http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/31/alison-lundergan-grimes-calls-federal-investigation-mcconnell-voter-intimidation.html
"McConnell is betting that by breaking federal and state law so close to election day, he will get the benefit that comes from his illegal activity at the cost of a slap on the wrist later. As the Michele Bachmann case illustrates, the federal government doesn’t take kindly to illegal campaign activities.
Sen. McConnell is taking a huge risk by openly violating state and federal law. The fact the McConnell campaign chose to go down this desperate path demonstrates that the election in Kentucky is very close. The race is close that intimidating a few thousand voters into not showing up at the polls might make the difference between victory and defeat.
It isn’t surprising that the big champion of the Koch brothers’ efforts to buy the government is so willing to keep regular folks from voting. What is shocking is the brazen stupidity of McConnell’s tactics."

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/31/mitch-mcconnell-resorts-lying-win-claims-nobody-privatize-social-security.html
"Mitch McConnell knows he can’t win his Senate seat in Kentucky if he tells the truth about his big money agenda. But sometimes he slips up, just like the newer candidates, and out comes the privatization talk that Republicans know kills campaigns. So now Mitch McConnell is pretending it makes him gag to have anyone suggest he’s ever said what he’s spent years trying to achieve.
Makes you wonder why McConnell is so ashamed of his party’s agenda. If it’s so great, why not be honest about it?"

Thursday, October 30, 2014

"Thanks to weak campaign finance laws, however, we will likely never know who exactly is bankrolling this massive presence in the midterm elections. “When large corporations decide they want to get their own candidates into office but they don’t want to be seen doing it, they call the US Chamber,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division."

"The lies, the evasion, the phobic avoidance -- it would all be pretty entertaining if the stakes weren't so high. But they are, indeed: McConnell promised the Kochs and their billionaire friends that the Senate just wouldn't debate proposals to help low and middle income folks like minimum wage, unemployment comp, and student loans, and that he would help Wall Street, big oil and coal companies, and health insurance companies by attaching riders to budget bills to force deregulation of those industries.

The biggest question of this election is whether the Republicans will win control of the Senate, so that McConnell can work his magic for his billionaire friends. But right behind that in importance is this inextricably linked question: do the Koch candidates win their incredibly close elections? The biggest investments (as they call them) the Kochs have made are in Senate races in NC, LA, AK, AR, IA, CO, and of course to support their loyal follower McConnell in KY. And they have made winning the Governor's races in WI, MI, FL, NE, KS, and AZ a huge priority as well. And pretty much all of these races are too close to call."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/10/oregon-governor-richardson-abortion
"Over the past few weeks, a number of Republican candidates have run deceptive advertisements or used sneaky language to paper over their hardline views on reproductive rights. Pols who've done this include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Senate hopeful Scott Brown in New Hampshire, and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez. Now you can add another name to the list of pro-life GOPers who are suddenly talking about choice: Oregon's Dennis Richardson."

"People should really be aware of who the Koch brothers are. They’re not just your typical right-wing conservatives. These are extremely radical Libertarian conservatives who essentially want to abolish any and all government regulations and put an end to almost all social programs."

"Now that nurse Amber Vinson has been cleared of Ebola, our Ebola “epidemic” is down to one person in the United States. But if you turn on right wing media, you’d think that the land was awash in people dying of this virus and we should all hover inside, deeply afraid."

"Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has already promised the Koch brothers that “we’re not going to be debating all these gosh-darn proposals…like raising the minimum wage…extending unemployment…the student loan package"."

To most observers, the answer is a plain “of course.” But under Chief Justice John Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court has answered in the negative, making sweeping statements about the innocuousness of a political system drenched in contributions from corporations and wealthy and individuals."

"The term "dark money" refers to funds spent to influence elections by 501(c) groups such as the Chamber, which are not required to disclose the sources of their funds. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision opened the door to unprecedented outside spending to influence elections"

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/28/junk-deal-gop-governor-nathan-deal-longest-running-scandal-georgias-history.html
"While Gov. Deal touts his years of experience, his track record during 34 years in public office is an uninspiring legacy of corruption, self-service and failed leadership.
Gov. Deal’s ethics problems are legendary, to be sure. In 2010, he resigned from Congress to escape likely ethical sanctions for using his position for his own personal financial benefit. He immediately launched his campaign for governor, but the pattern of corruption continued, resulting in a wide-ranging ethics probe, cover-up and federal investigation reaching inside the Office of the Governor. In 2014, the resulting whistleblower lawsuits cost Georgia taxpayers over $3 million dollars.
While many are aware of Gov. Deal’s ethical lapses, few understand the pattern of corruption that entwined Gov. Deal’s political positions and aspirations with his personal finances and businesses."

"There are several Fortune 500 companies* headquartered in Georgia. So while the courts may not listen to voters, the companies who are based there might be interested in consumers who say they will boycott their products until the state of Georgia stops suppressing the vote"

"As it turns out, Mitch McConnell is also the GOP's mythmaker-in-chief, a hyper-partisan more than willing to tell the biggest lies on the biggest issues in order to mislead the American public, all in the service of his Republican Party.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

"That Kansas "experiment" just keeps getting worse and worse. Between the draconian cuts to public schools, the teacher abuse, and the big tax benefits for the Koch brothers, Sam Brownback has created a Third World country right in the heartland."

"This is really how Republicans think: "What's the big deal? It was only 2,000 women." (Actually, Dave, it was 2,000 households you shortchanged, but hey, who's counting?) The current crop of Republicans have been steeped like Randian tea bags for so long in the extremist philosophies of greed and power, they really don't think there's anything wrong with them. And why would they? They only associate with other rich people, who are marinated in the same oily ideals. It's only when they get in front of the public as candidates that it begins to look like a problem"

"In 2007, Philly rolled out the red carpet for state legislators and lobbyists attending the annual “State and Nation” policy summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Pennsylvania legislators appropriated a whopping $50,000 of taxpayer money to help pay for the event, including $3,000 for cheesecake lollipops.

The event apparently had a lasting impact as the ALEC agenda has continued to roll though the hallways of the state capitol in Harrisburg in the years since. After Governor Corbett took office in 2010, ALEC bill after ALEC bill was introduced and signed into law. To accomplish this feat a well-orchestrated cast of characters -- including politicians, state “think tanks” and advocacy organizations -- are singing from the same hymnal, and being bankrolled by the same interests. Behind the scenes, we find charter school magnates, ideological interests and deep-pocketed investors pumping millions into campaign coffers while playing the education “market” like a game of poker."

http://aattp.org/alaska-tea-party-rep-don-young-is-the-personification-of-everything-that-is-wrong-with-america/
"For more than forty years he’s been Alaska’s only Representative. He’s a blatant racist and an outspoken misogynist, who openly waxes nostalgic for the good old days when white men didn’t have to share power with anybody else. He uses racial slurs openly, in public conversation with constituents, in interviews, and does not understand or care why it’s wrong. He’s loudly, obnoxiously homophobic. He’s a jingoist. He’s anti-science in a state that depends for its very existence on science and engineering. He’s anti-science in the state that is most directly affected by the terrible results of ignoring science. During what was arguably the single most important vote in the House in the last forty years, Don Young went on Safari to Africa.
Don Young is an outdated Neanderthal who long ago lost touch with the modern world.
He’s 81 years old and he’s not going to change and he’s made that goddamned clear. And he doesn’t have to. He’s going to go right on being Don Young."

"Let me introduce you to The Project 2017, headed up by Bill Kristol and Dan Senor, among others, and presumably funded by the usual billionaire suspects. The Project 2017 has a comprehensive plan outlined on their website for how they propose to replace the ACA.

First, we start with full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. That means pre-existing conditions are once again in play, no premium assistance, no co-pay assistance, no state exchanges, no minimum benefits, and annual and lifetime caps on what insurers must pay are reinstated. Also, premiums would not be limited for different age bands, so that 60-year olds could pay as much as 10 or 15 times what a 20-year old might pay."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/27/1339535/-Mitch-McConnell-finally-confirms-he-wants-to-repeal-health-insurance-for-500-000-Kentuckians#
"For the past several months, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has tried to have it both ways on Kynect, Kentucky's popular implementation of Obamacare that has delivered health insurance to more than 500,000 Kentuckians. On the one hand, McConnell has said he wants to repeal Obamacare, but on the other hand, he also says Kynect should remain in place if Kentucky wants to keep it.
There's no reasonable way to square those two positions—you can't repeal Obamacare without repealing Kynect, and you can't keep Kynect without keeping Obamacare—but that hasn't stopped McConnell from taking them both."

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/26/mcconnell-reeling-2-biggest-newspapers-kentucky-endorse-alison-lundergan-grimes.html
"Sen. McConnell has amassed a huge amount of political power. He could have used that power to help Kentuckians. What he chose to do with that power speaks volumes about his priorities. Instead of working with Democrats to help the people back home, McConnell put every ounce of his energy and effort into turning the once formidable Senate into a machine of dysfunction that is nearly incapable of working in the manner that the Founders intended.
The national political media have been blinded by McConnell’s power and longevity. They are refusing to see what is happening on the ground in Kentucky. McConnell’s money and influence may be enough to keep him hanging on, but both editorials echoed the feelings of millions of voters in the state who are ready for a change."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/26/1338757/-The-11-top-lies-of-Mitch-Myth-McConnell
"Mitch McConnell is also the GOP's mythmaker-in-chief, a hyper-partisan more than willing to tell the biggest lies on the biggest issues in order to mislead the American public, all in the service of his Republican Party.
Whether he's discussing taxes, health care, the economy, the debt, or pretty much anything else, virtually all of Myth McConnell's talking points are tried—and untrue."

"Here we have a United States senator ignorantly pushing total and complete nonsense, despite the fact that nearly every medical expert on the planet (as well as the facts of what we’ve seen this past month in this country) is completely contradicting everything he said. This just another example where facts and reality don’t seem to matter to Republicans. Their “reality” is seemingly based on what they want to be real, instead of actual reality."

Saturday, October 25, 2014

"You would think that making it easier for citizens to vote would be something for everyone in a democracy to celebrate. But the shocking remarks by these six government officials — some of whom will be on the November ballot — tell a different story."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-kansas-tea-party-disaster-20141023
"That word, "experiment," has come to haunt Brownback as the data rolls in. The governor promised his "pro-growth tax policy" would act "like a shot of adrenaline in the heart of the Kansas economy," but, instead, state revenues plummeted by nearly $700 million in a single fiscal year, both Moody's and Standard & Poor's downgraded the state's credit rating, and job growth sagged behind all four of Kansas' neighbors. Brownback wound up nixing a planned sales-tax cut to make up for some of the shortfall, but not before he'd enacted what his opponents call the largest cuts in education spending in the history of Kansas."

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/debunking-chris-christies-minimum-wage-nonsense
"After Christie vetoed an increase in the Garden State, Democratic legislators put it on the ballot, and the voters approved raising the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.25. Yet while four of the top 10 states in employment performance this year were among those that raised the wage -- specifically Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Florida -- Christie's New Jersey was not among them.
So bad was his economic management that New Jersey marked the worst performance of any state, period -- with a net decline in employment of more than 0.5 percent by last summer.
No wonder he's tired of hearing about higher wages. And no doubt working families are equally tired of hearing from him."

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/26982-the-corporate-assault-on-direct-democracy
"The direct democracy of ballot initiatives - where voters get to vote yes or no, without any politicians in the way - is a treasured part of the fabric of 24 states and many more cities. But around the country, there's been a disturbing trend this year: When initiatives threaten corporate interests, lawyers run to court to prevent voters from even getting the chance to vote."

"To a large extent, the radicalism of the Tea Party and the Republican Party at-large is due to the fact that they don’t represent the population at large; they represent a primarily white and middle- to high-income voting bloc. And that’s how Republicans want to keep it; they know they can’t win in fair race, so like Dick Dasterdly and Muttley, they set all sorts of obstacles in their opponents’ way. Hopefully, much like Dick Dasterdly and Muttley, their plan will blow up in their faces: Voters will be so angry about Republican attempts to suppress the vote that they’ll turn out in even higher numbers."

http://www.alternet.org/fox-news-young-women-dont-vote-just-work-your-tinder-profile
"On Tuesday’s edition of “The Five,” Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle suggested that young women, who apparently lack important conservative wisdom, should just go ahead and excuse themselves from voting in the midterms. According to Guilfoyle and her co-hosts, females of a certain age just “don’t get it,” which should probably disqualify them from serving on juries, or from exercising a crucial constitutional right they gained less than a century ago."

"Once viewed as a lock for Republicans, the race for the open US Senate seat in South Dakota is now very competitive as corruption allegations plaguing GOP candidate and former Governor Mike Rounds boost the prospects of his challengers, including Democrat Rick Weiland and independent candidates Larry Pressler and Gordon Howie. In particular, Rounds has been dogged by accusations that an EB-5 visa program heavily promoted by his administration violated the law as it provided American visas to wealthy Chinese investors.

Now records reveal that the same state agency that oversaw the controversial visa program also extended taxpayer assistance to companies in which Rounds and his campaign manager, Rob Skjonsberg, are investors."

http://samuel-warde.com/2014/10/debate-defensive-steve-king-shocks-audience/
"Mowrer first called King out for “fear mongering” about Ebola, and then called for a “calm, deliberate” approach to dealing with the disease, dictated by the best advice of medical and transportation experts, not xenophobic knee jerk reactions. He then pointed out that King’s role in the Tea Party led government shutdown and the resulting sequester had cut funding to the NIH & CDC dramatically, causing possibly life saving experiments to be abandoned, and undercutting our nation’s preparedness to deal with a crisis like Ebola. And that’s when the train came off the tracks for King.
Visibly shaken, King angrily denied blame for the shut down, insisting that it was President Obama who shut down the government – drawing shocked gasps and groans of the audience in reaction to the blatant falsehood."

http://samuel-warde.com/2014/10/obama-launches-solar-energy-program/
"Cue the howling from the right. They won’t take this lying down. You can expect to see a lot of Koch funded ads spreading the lie that renewable energy will be the death knell for our economy. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the truth is that the age of fossil fuels is on the way out and the age of renewable, sustainable energy is on the way in. It’s get on board or get out of the way because this train ain’t stopping for the Koch brothers and their paid minions."

Friday, October 24, 2014

"At a time when most Americans agree that the country has too much power in too few hands, the world’s two wealthiest men are only six seats away from seizing the Senate and consolidating their current control of the House. The result could be a full “Koch Congress” that further rigs the rules in their favor.

Libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch have a combined net worth four times that of well-known Democratic donor George Soros, and one hundred times that of Tom Steyer.

This summer, participants in the Kochs’ secret billionaires’ summit pledged to raise $500 million to take the Senate in 2014 midterm elections. After four decades of funding front groups and an elaborate ideology they call “economic freedom,” the Kochs embody today’s emerging American oligarchy. No one else can even compare.

At risk are the rights of all Americans, especially women, workers, voters, veterans, as well as the protection of our rapidly warming Earth, since the Kochs’ end game is to defend their carbon based wealth by continuing to pollute politics and the planet for free. In all the noise of this election season, there has been little discussion of the fact that two billionaire brothers are about to have “power of the purse” over the world’s wealthiest nation."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/23/1338645/-Rep-Steve-King-I-don-t-expect-to-meet-gay-people-in-heaven
"King comes off as the ultimate Godfearing Conservative. It's a worldview in which "cohabiters" are destined for Hell, but Sen. David Vitter still gets to ride a private limo into Heaven because he's different. Divorced people are sinners, unless you yourself are one of them. And you must strictly obey the rules of your church as the only true path to salvation, unless your church starts getting more tolerant than you are in which case they can go right to Hell along with the cohabiters and the divorcees and the fornicators.
I'm impressed. You always expect to see a glimmer of good in someone, some spark of kindness that you can seize on to say all right, that person isn't always a monster. King never really delivers on that; on pretty much any topic you can name that he has voiced an opinion on, his opinion is mean and bitter and self-centered and self-righteous and just reading it makes you a little carsick, like you've just spent twenty minutes on a windy road with a bag over your head. But enjoy him, Iowa. If it were up to him the whole lot of you would be burning in Hell, but that's what you elected him to say, right?"

http://aattp.org/a-retired-navy-vet-smacks-down-michael-savage-for-insulting-troops-with-ptsd/
"Conservatives like Savage, i.e. conservatives that have themselves never served not a single day in their lives, love the military … just so long as those soldiers are dying heroically in a foreign land while killing people conservatives hate and fear.
Conservatives like Savage love ships and tanks and guns and bullets, they love the bombs and they love the bloody carnage. They stand, flag in hand and tear in eye, as Johnny marches off to war. But when Johnny comes home again, if he does, broken, battered, maimed, damaged, why conservatives are nowhere to be found – unless it’s convenient.
So long as they can use us veterans to attack the president, to further their own political agenda, to squeeze just one more drop of blood from us, one more dollar of profit, conservatives love us."

"Chaffetz, in lockstep with his Republican colleagues, has blasted the President for not doing enough to secure the embassy in Benghazi, Libya, but he previously voted to cut funding for U.S. embassy security. He was probably unaware of that, too."

"Ernst always has time for Fox News it seems, basically free advertising. She's made several other appearances on that network in the past week as well, but won't talk to the Des Moines Register, the largest daily in the state."

"McConnell often talks out of both sides of his mouth, as he did when he stood on the Senate floor and claimed that Republicans were fighting against stagnant wages, and then turned around two days later and announced a plan to lower the wages of construction workersin order to fund the building of a new bridge in Kentucky. So much for looking out for the people that put in a hard days work."

"With less than two weeks to go in the Kentucky Senate race, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the unusual choice to bring up his past support for privatizing Social Security. In a speech before the Louisville Rotary Club, McConnell recalled how hard he worked to get then-President George W. Bush’s plan through Congress in 2005."

http://www.alternet.org/media/why-conservatives-opt-propaganda-over-reality
"watching Fox News actually makes you less informed than if you don't watch any news at all. In a 2012 study, Fox News viewers rated the absolute lowest in ability to correctly answer questions on a quiz about recent news events. People who didn’t take in any news programs at all did better on the quizzes. NPR listeners rated the best."

"It’s no wonder that independent studies have found that people who watched no news at all were more accurately informed about basic facts and events going on in our country than someone who cited Fox News as their main source of information. It’s not just that Fox News shows bias towards conservative ideologies, but they’re blatantly misinforming Americans about basic facts. Will this information make any difference in the minds of conservatives? Of course not. Those who trust Limbaugh are going to continue trusting him and those who don’t weren’t ever going to in the first place. And because this survey wasn’t done by a right-wing source, conservatives will just dismiss it anyway. But it is interesting nonetheless as this marks yet another survey that’s been conducted about the trustworthiness of news sources where the conservative-leaning sources were found to be the most dishonest."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/22/1338416/-Scottie-s-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-nbsp-debate
"But the most entertaining whopper from Scottie of the evening, at least for the New Hampshire crowd, was when Todd asked him why he passed up on the opportunity to run for the Senate again in Massachusetts special elections. "Because I live here," said Scottie, and you can immediately hear the laughs and the skeptical guffaws from the crowd. He doubles down, "I was born at the Portsmouth Naval shipyard!" And the crowd laughs even harder. "My mom was a waitress at Hampton Beach!" And the crowd gives up on him entirely.
Ah, Scottie, thanks for all the laughs. But we really won't miss you when you're gone. On the other hand, there are 48 other states you could try."

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/23/3583424/gop-ebola-opposition-no-sense/
"In February, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) officially placed a hold on the nomination.
Chaffetz seemed unaware of this wrinkle during his Fox interview, and his office would not return repeated requests for comment. Confusing matters even further, a FoxNews.com article summarizing the Chaffetz interview appears to have changed his wording to correct the error."

"So much of the appeal Rick Perry is trying to manufacture is based on showy demonstrations of manly action that give the look and flavor of “leadership.” He’s putting on a show and trusting that his audience – reporters and Republican activists – won’t actually care if he produces any results. It worked during the border crisis, but the Ebola breakdown is different; lapses that occurred under his watch fed directly into a nationwide panic."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/23/1338636/-What-is-Joni-Ernst-trying-to-hide-by-ducking-newspaper-endorsement-interviews
"So we've got one case where Ernst's campaign scheduled then canceled a meeting and at least two where she simply avoided a meeting. That looks like a pattern, and a sensible one for a candidate who's doing her best to keep her extreme positions under the radar.
There's another pattern, too: Michigan Republican Terri Lynn Land is similarly avoiding an editorial board interview. It's almost like they have something to hide. (They do: Their unpopular positions on everything from the minimum wage to birth control access.)"

"Another day in the life of Campaign 2014, another dollop of Obamacare BS. Another Republican saying we can just repeal the Affordable Care Act, but keep all of the nice things about the Affordable Care Act. Everyone can have all the health care they want, without any of the negative complications of trying to make that happen within a private insurance marketplace.

Sen. Mitch McConnell has been leading the charge here. The man’s untouchable in terms of candidates trying to have it both ways on Obamacare. He’s trying to convince the Kentucky electorate that Obamacare can be repealed “root and branch,” but none of the 500,000 people who’ve gained coverage would lose their coverage."

"The Charleston Republican is facing nine charges including two counts of misconduct in office, six counts of using campaign funds for personal use, and one count of false reporting candidate campaign disclosures.

Harrell was released on bond in late September after facing allegations that he doctored flight records, reimbursed himself for flights that he didn't take and unlawfully paid himself tens of thousands of dollars from his campaign account."

"Governor Christie pushed further into the contentious debate over voting rights than ever before, saying Tuesday that Republicans need to win gubernatorial races this year so that they’re the ones controlling “voting mechanisms” going into the next presidential election."

"This was honestly one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever listened to or read. The absolute ignorance about mental illness, and the absolute disrespect shown toward our men and women in uniform, is appalling. And when he talks about us “being laughed at,” it’s people like him who are the reason why so many nations laugh at us. Though Michael Savage isn’t just an embarrassment to this country, but the entire human race. Anyone who supports this knuckle-dragging Neanderthal should be absolutely ashamed of themselves."

"Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey and potential Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election, is facing criticism after he declared on Tuesday that he is "tired of hearing about the minimum wage"."

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/21/3582351/fox-news-obamacare-admission/
"Fox News admitted on Tuesday that a conservative-led lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act would raise health care premiums for millions of Americans. But then in its on-screen chyron, the network sought to attribute the increases not to the litigants involved in the case, but to President Obama, potentially confusing viewers."

"As most of us know, about 95 percent of what keeps Fox News going these days is devoting nearly every show on their network to bashing President Obama. Pretty much no matter what the president says or does, Fox News is often right there to tell conservatives exactly why it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to the United States."

"If Fox News says it, you can damn sure bet conservatives all over this country will be parroting it within 24-48 hours. Words and phrases repeated over and over and over until they’re etched in the minds of nearly every conservative in this country. They don’t even have to make any sense. They just have to sound good."

http://www.politicususa.com/2014/10/20/chuck-todd-wrong-poll-shows-alison-lundergan-grimes-positioned-win-kentucky.html
"Todd was so busy cheerleading for McConnell that he ignored the fundamental dynamics of this election.
Mitch McConnell is not popular. McConnell has run a terrible reelection campaign about nothing. The biased Republican polls have created a false narrative of McConnell momentum that doesn’t exist. These are things that Beltway Boys like Chuck Todd don’t see.
Todd was wrong. Instead of being disqualified, Alison Lundergan Grimes is in a position to be the next senator from Kentucky."

"The last barricades in the right wing’s fight to prevent increases in the minimum wage are starting to fall, as even the businesses that minimum wage opponents are supposedly protecting from having to pay a decent wage are saying, “Enough! It’s time to raise the minimum wage"."

"The GOP, it seems, is functionally incapable of talking about the minimum wage without botching basic facts or seeming downright insensitive. No, minimum wage hikes don’t kill job growth, and no, Joni Ernst, most minimum wage earners aren’t high school students who just need a little “starter wage.” The callousness caucus, though, will hear none of it."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/20/1337944/-Just-how-nuts-is-Republican-Sen-Rand-Paul#
"There's talk of him running for president, you know. That would be pretty damn funny, except for the part where a sizable chunk of the entire Republican base, fed chunks of these various conspiracy theories on a daily basis by Fox News, is perfectly willing to believe all of this stuff. The line between fringe groups and Reince Priebus Republicanism has been blurred to the point of near-invisibility as the party (did I mention Fox News?) seeks to embrace any scrap of hokum that could usefully inflame their base. Whether it be Rand Paul, or Ben Carson, or (sigh) apparently every last Texas Republican, it's the Alex Jones Republicans who are in charge. If all of that has resulted in a national leadership that has proven itself something between incompetent and incoherent, that's hardly a surprise."